CONVALESCENCE AND ACQUAINTANCE.
A man's clothing is his defence; but with a woman all dress is
adornment. Nature decrees it; adornment is her instinctive delight. And,
above all, the adorning of a bride; it brings out so charmingly the
meaning of the thing. Therein centres the gay consent of all mankind and
womankind to an innocent, sweet apostasy from the ranks of both. The
value of living--which is loving; the sacredest wonders of life; all
that is fairest and of best delight in thought, in feeling, yea, in
substance,--all are apprehended under the floral crown and hymeneal
veil. So, when at length one day Mrs. Richling said, "Madame Zenobie,
don't you think I might sit up?" it would have been absurd to doubt the
quadroon's willingness to assist her in dressing. True, here was neither
wreath nor veil, but here was very young wifehood, and its re-attiring
would be like a proclamation of victory over the malady that had striven
to put two hearts asunder. Her willingness could hardly be doubted,
though she smiled irresponsibly, and said:--
"If you thing"-- She spread her eyes and elbows suddenly in the manner
of a crab, with palms turned upward and thumbs outstretched--"Well!"--and
so dropped them.
"You don't want wait till de doctah comin'?" she asked.
"I don't think he's coming; it's after his time."
"Yass?"
The woman was silent a moment, and then threw up one hand again, with
the forefinger lifted alertly forward.
"I make a lill fi' biffo."
She made a fire. Then she helped the convalescent to put on a few loose
drapings. She made no concealment of the enjoyment it gave her, though
her words were few, and generally were answers to questions; and when
at length she brought from the wardrobe, pretending not to notice her
mistake, a loose and much too ample robe of woollen and silken stuffs to
go over all, she moved as though she trod on holy ground, and distinctly
felt, herself, the thrill with which the convalescent, her young eyes
beaming their assent, let her arms into the big sleeves, and drew about
her small form the soft folds of her husband's morning-gown.
"He goin' to fine that droll," said the quadroon.
The wife's face confessed her pleasure.
"It's as much mine as his," she said.
"Is you mek dat?" asked the nurse, as she drew its silken cord about the
convalescent's waist.
"Yes. Don't draw it tight; leave it loose--so; but you can tie the knot
tight. That will do; there!" She smiled broadly. "Don't tie me in as if
you were tying me in forever."
Madame Zenobie understood perfectly, and, smiling in response, did tie
it as if she were tying her in forever.
Half an hour or so later the quadroon, being--it may have been by
chance--at the street door, ushered in a person who simply bowed in
silence.
But as he put one foot on the stair he paused, and, bending a severe
gaze upon her, asked:--
"Why do you smile?"
She folded her hands limply on her bosom, and drawing a cheek and
shoulder toward each other, replied:--
"Nuttin'"--
The questioner's severity darkened.
"Why do you smile at nothing?"
She laid the tips of her fingers upon her lips to compose them.
"You din come in you' carridge. She goin' to thing 'tis Miche Reechin."
The smile forced its way through her fingers. The visitor turned in
quiet disdain and went upstairs, she following.
At the top he let her pass. She led the way and, softly pushing open the
chamber-door, entered noiselessly, turned, and, as the other stepped
across the threshold, nestled her hands one on the other at her waist,
shrank inward with a sweet smile, and waved one palm toward the huge,
blue-hung mahogany four-poster,--empty.
The visitor gave a slight double nod and moved on across the carpet.
Before a small coal fire, in a grate too wide for it, stood a broad,
cushioned rocking-chair, with the corner of a pillow showing over its
top. The visitor went on around it. The girlish form lay in it, with
eyes closed, very still; but his professional glance quickly detected
the false pretence of slumber. A slippered foot was still slightly
reached out beyond the bright colors of the long gown, and toward the
brazen edge of the hearth-pan, as though the owner had been touching her
tiptoe against it to keep the chair in gentle motion. One cheek was on
the pillow; down the other curled a few light strands of hair that had
escaped from her brow.
Thus for an instant. Then a smile began to wreath about the corner of
her lips; she faintly stirred, opened her eyes--and lo! Dr. Sevier,
motionless, tranquil, and grave.
"O Doctor!" The blood surged into her face and down upon her neck.
She put her hands over her eyes, and her face into the pillow. "O
Doctor!"--rising to a sitting posture,--"I thought, of course, it
was my husband."
The Doctor replied while she was speaking:--
"My carriage broke down." He drew a chair toward the fireplace, and
asked, with his face toward the dying fire:--
"How are you feeling to-day, madam,--stronger?"
"Yes; I can almost say I'm well." The blush was still on her face
as he turned to receive her answer, but she smiled with a bright
courageousness that secretly amused and pleased him. "I thank you,
Doctor, for my recovery; I certainly should thank you." Her face lighted
up with that soft radiance which was its best quality, and her smile
became half introspective as her eyes dropped from his, and followed her
outstretched hand as it rearranged the farther edges of the
dressing-gown one upon another.
"If you will take better care of yourself hereafter, madam," responded
the Doctor, thumping and brushing from his knee some specks of mud that
he may have got when his carriage broke down, "I will thank you.
But"--brush--brush--"I--doubt it."
"Do you think you should?" she asked, leaning forward from the back of
the great chair and letting her wrists drop over the front of its broad
arms.
"I do," said the Doctor, kindly. "Why shouldn't I? This present attack
was by your own fault." While he spoke he was looking into her eyes,
contracted at their corners by her slight smile. The face was one of
those that show not merely that the world is all unknown to them, but
that it always will be so. It beamed with inquisitive intelligence, and
yet had the innocence almost of infancy. The Doctor made a discovery;
that it was this that made her beautiful. "She _is_ beautiful," he
insisted to himself when his critical faculty dissented.
"You needn't doubt me, Doctor. I'll try my best to take care. Why, of
course I will,--for John's sake." She looked up into his face from the
tassel she was twisting around her finger, touching the floor with her
slippers' toe and faintly rocking.
"Yes, there's a chance there," replied the grave man, seemingly not
overmuch pleased; "I dare say everything you do or leave undone is for
his sake."
The little wife betrayed for a moment a pained perplexity, and then
exclaimed:--
"Well, of course!" and waited his answer with bright eyes.
"I have known women to think of their own sakes," was the response.
She laughed, and with unprecedented sparkle replied:--
"Why, whatever's his sake is my sake. I don't see the difference. Yes, I
see, of course, how there might be a difference; but I don't see how a
woman"-- She ceased, still smiling, and, dropping her eyes to her hands,
slowly stroked one wrist and palm with the tassel of her husband's robe.
The Doctor rose, turned his back to the mantel-piece, and looked down
upon her. He thought of the great, wide world: its thorny ways, its
deserts, its bitter waters, its unrighteousness, its self-seeking
greeds, its weaknesses, its under and over reaching, its unfaithfulness;
and then again of this--child, thrust all at once a thousand miles into
it, with never--so far as he could see--an implement, a weapon, a sense
of danger, or a refuge; well pleased with herself, as it seemed, lifted
up into the bliss of self-obliterating wifehood, and resting in her
husband with such an assurance of safety and happiness as a saint might
pray for grace to show to Heaven itself. He stood silent, feeling too
grim to speak, and presently Mrs. Richling looked up with a sudden
liveliness of eye and a smile that was half apology and half
persistence.
"Yes, Doctor, I'm going to take care of myself."
"Mrs. Richling, is your father a man of fortune?"
"My father is not living," said she, gravely. "He died two years ago. He
was the pastor of a small church. No, sir; he had nothing but his small
salary, except that for some years he taught a few scholars. He taught
me." She brightened up again. "I never had any other teacher."
The Doctor folded his hands behind him and gazed abstractedly through
the upper sash of the large French windows. The street-door was heard to
open.
"There's John," said the convalescent, quickly, and the next moment
her husband entered. A tired look vanished from his face as he saw the
Doctor. He hurried to grasp his hand, then turned and kissed his wife.
The physician took up his hat.
"Doctor," said the wife, holding the hand he gave her, and looking up
playfully, with her cheek against the chair-back, "you surely didn't
suspect me of being a rich girl, did you?"
"Not at all, madam." His emphasis was so pronounced that the husband
laughed.
"There's one comfort in the opposite condition, Doctor," said the young
man.
"Yes?"
"Why, yes; you see, it requires no explanation."
"Yes, it does," said the physician; "it is just as binding on people
to show good cause why they are poor as it is to show good cause why
they're rich. Good-day, madam." The two men went out together. His word
would have been good-by, but for the fear of fresh acknowledgments.